Colombia’s President Bets Pragmatic Pair Can Salvage His Legacy

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(Bloomberg) — Gustavo Petro has antagonized Colombia’s energy industry, disrupted its health-care system and risked economic ruin in a social-media spat with Donald Trump. Now the leftist leader is trying a new tack to leave his mark on the country in the last 18 months of his presidency.

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In a show of pragmatism over ideology, Petro has appointed two loyalists to key positions, betting they’re the kind of political operators he needs to strike deals with Congress for health and labor legislation and to advance Colombia’s interests abroad. While ideological purists in his camp have objected to the moves, Petro is attempting to cement his legacy and set his progressive movement up for a win in next year’s election.

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As he seeks to reverse a string of setbacks, the president is counting on close adviser Laura Sarabia, 30, as his new top diplomat and experienced legislative wrangler Armando Benedetti, 57, as his interior minister. Both are unpopular with other cabinet members, who accused them in a disastrous televised meeting this month of lacking conviction and being tainted by scandal. But they also have reputations as savvy string-pullers who can get things done.   

Sarabia’s immediate priority is managing relations with the Trump administration after Petro triggered a nine-hour tariff war by initially refusing to accept deportation flights just a week into US president’s second term. Benedetti, meanwhile, must repair ties with lawmakers — particularly in the Senate — so that the government can break a congressional logjam and get legislation approved. 

A key reason behind the pair’s rise to power is their ability to manage the Colombian leader’s sometimes erratic personality, according to a former insider. “Sarabia and Benedetti don’t judge Petro,” Alejandro Gaviria, who was sacked as education minister in 2023 during the administration’s first cabinet shakeup, said in an interview. “He feels comfortable with people with whom he can speak calmly, with whom he does not feel a scrutinizing gaze.”

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Petro’s office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment about the appointments. But the president told a government newspaper he values loyalty and is trying to build an effective team.

The ideologues that publicly criticized Petro’s personnel choices included Vice President Francia Marquez, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, director of social prosperity Gustavo Bolívar and planning chief Alexander López. The leftist activists — part of a group known locally as el Sindicato, or the Union — try to shun the transactional nature of politics in the pursuit what they see as the government’s noble goals.

“As a feminist and as a woman, I cannot sit at this group table of our progressive project with Armando Benedetti,” a tearful Muhamad said during the Feb. 4 broadcast, which pulled in more viewers than nighttime soap operas and reality shows. Benedetti faced domestic abuse allegations in 2024, which he denied, and was also a central figure along with Sarabia in a phone-tapping scandal involving her nanny that helped paralyze the government less than a year after Petro took office, leading him to fire them both.

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That incident was just one of a laundry list of blemishes for the country’s first leftist government. While Petro succeeded in taxing the rich, he ousted his first finance chief after the market-friendly economist resisted too many of the president’s initiatives. His ban on new oil and gas exploration prompted the need for costly imports with a bigger carbon footprint, with his energy minister — whose resignation was accepted Tuesday — blaming companies for raising prices. And the president’s bid to expand the state’s role in health care prompted one of Colombia’s top insurers to seek an exit from the public system.   

Throughout it all, Petro has grown increasingly frustrated. He blames Congress, the courts and technocrats who toiled under previous governments for not allowing him to fulfill his campaign promises. Elected on a pledge to radically transform Colombia’s conservative economic model, he targeted three sectors vital to his voter base: pensions, health and labor laws. While he’s made some progress on remaking the retirement system, senators have stymied him on the other two fronts. 

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With time running out to deliver, Petro now appears willing to sacrifice some of his political convictions ahead of the 2026 presidential vote by leaning on people he trusts. 

Petro and Benedetti have known each other for decades and both hail from Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Upon taking office, the president sent Benedetti to Venezuela as ambassador when he restored diplomatic ties with Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime and reopened the border with the neighboring Andean nation. 

Sarabia, meanwhile, had only ever worked as a political aide before she was named foreign minister a week before the blowup with Trump. She was Benedetti’s assistant when he was a senator, and he recommended her to Petro ahead of the 2022 election. The daughter of an air force officer and a graduate of a military school, she brought a measure of order to his chaotic schedule — first during the campaign, and then in government when she was the keeper of his agenda. It was her control over access to the president that riled many in cabinet. 

No Clear Successor

“The president decided in a desperate move to go all in, without worrying about optics, and confirmed that his vow to change client politics won’t be fulfilled,” Gabriel Cifuentes, a Bogotá-based political analyst, said by phone. “Benedetti is a clear example of a strategic decision — questionable, but strategic.”

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Some of the ideologues are also showing apparent signs of pragmatism. Though Muhamad and López resigned their cabinet posts over Petro’s decision to elevate Sarabia and Benedetti, local news outlets are reporting they’ve since agreed to take other positions within government.

Term limits prevent Petro from running again and no clear successor has yet emerged from within the leftist ranks. So for now, with markets already betting on a rightward shift, the president is betting the divisive duo can help turn his government around so it has something to show its voters next year.

“The left is disappointed,” Gaviria said. “They say so in private, but they know they have no alternative.”

—With assistance from Andreina Itriago.

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